The One That Got Away
by Beth2000
Summary: What happened if Cedric managed to escape back to Hogwarts before he was killed. How will everyone react when the champion comes back and Harry is missing? Alternate graveyard scene from the Goblet of Fire. Not a songfic. Disclaimer I don't own the cover image, but love it.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary - What happened if Cedric managed to escape back to Hogwarts before he was killed. How will everyone react when the champion comes back and Harry is missing?**

 **Disclaimer ~ I do not own anything in italics or Harry Potter, R K Rowling does. ;)**

* * *

 _Harry felt his feet slam into the ground; his injured leg gave way, and he fell forward; his hand let go of the Triwizard Cup at last. He raised his head.  
"Where are we?" he said.  
Cedric shook his head. He got up, pulled Harry to his feet, and they looked around.  
They had left the Hogwarts grounds completely; they had obviously traveled miles - perhaps hundreds of miles - for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the black outline of a small church was visible beyond a large yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Harry could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.  
Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup and then up at Harry. "Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" he asked.  
"Nope," said Harry. He was looking around the graveyard. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"  
"I dunno," said Cedric. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?" "Yeah," said Harry, glad that Cedric had made the suggestion rather than him.  
They pulled out their wands. Harry kept looking around him. He had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.  
"Someone's coming," he said suddenly.  
Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Harry couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, he could tell that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Harry saw that the thing in the person's arms looked like a baby ... or was it merely a bundle of robes?  
Harry lowered his wand slightly and glanced sideways at Cedric. Cedric shot him a quizzical look. They both turned back to watch the approaching figure.  
It stopped beside a towering marble headstone, only six feet from them. For a second. Harry and Cedric and the short figure simply looked at one another.  
And then, without warning, Harry's scar exploded with pain. It was agony such as he had never felt in all his life; his wand slipped from his fingers as he put his hands over his face; his knees buckled; he was on the ground and he could see nothing at all; his head was about to split open._

"Harry! Harry are you okay?" Cedric asked while still pointing his wand at the unknown visitor.

"Get to the cup and get back to Hogwarts!" Harry said through gritted teeth.

"No! I'm not leaving you!" Cedric said rushed as the man and the bundle got closer.

"No you need to go back Dumbledore right away and tell him everything, please it the only way we might make it out of this alive."

Cedric must have seen the desperation in Harry's eyes because he have a quick nod then ran towards to pork key.

 _From far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill the spare."  
A swishing noise and a second voice, which screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"_

Harry couldn't see were the spell hit but knew for sure it didn't hit its target. All of a sudden something bright shone through his eyes kids and he knew Cedric was gone. And he was alone.

* * *

 **So that it so far. I have always wanted a fanfiction where Cedric makes it out of the graveyard and warns everyone so I decided to write one. In total this will probably end up being a few chapters. Anyways enjoy and review.**

 _ **Beth2000**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE! Please read my authors note at the bottom for why.**

 **Disclaimer~ I do not own The Harry Potter series or anything in italic's.**

* * *

When the bright light disappeared Cedric's feet fell to the ground hard. Instantly he fell over with his eyes closed tightly. He found himself being pulled upright when he opened his eyes. Mad-Eye Moody grabbed Cedric by the hand and pulled him to his feet. Everyone in the crowd was cheering for their campion not yet knowing the horrors of what had happened.

At once everyone swarmed Cedric congratulating him while Cho have him a quick kiss on the check. Dumbledore was also there congratulating the young wizard, but one look in his eyes he could tell something was wrong.

"Silences please!" Dumbledore's voice boomed out, "Cedric what's wrong?" He asked his voice full of concern.

"Yeah," piped up Ron, "where's Harry? I thought he would return from the maze once someone won."

"That's… that's the problem." Cedric said shakily. This piqued everyone's interest.

"What's the problem?" Asked Cho.

"Harry's not in the maze, and if I'm correct he's not even in Hogwarts grounds."

* * *

 _Before he could feel anything but numb disbelief, he felt himself being pulled to his feet.  
The short man in the cloak had put down his bundle, lit his wand, and was dragging Harry toward the marble headstone. Harry saw the name upon it flickering in the wandlight before he was forced around and slammed against it.  
TOM RIDDLE  
The cloaked man was now conjuring tight cords around Harry, tying him from neck to ankles to the headstone. Harry could hear shallow, fast breathing from the depths of the hood; he struggled, and the man hit him - hit him with a hand that had a finger missing. And Harry realized who was under the hood. It was Wormtail.  
"You!" he gasped.  
But Wormtail, who had finished conjuring the ropes, did not reply; he was busy checking the tightness of the cords, his fingers trembling uncontrollably, rumbling over the knots. Once sure that Harry was bound so tightly to the headstone that he couldn't move an inch, Wormtail drew a length of some black material from the inside of his cloak and stuffed it roughly into Harry's mouth; then, without a word, he turned from Harry and hurried away. Harry couldn't make a sound, nor could he see where Wormtail had gone; he couldn't turn his head to see beyond the headstone; he could see only what was right in front of him. _

_Harry's wand was on the ground where Cedric and Harry landed. The bundle of robes that Harry had thought was a baby was close by, at the foot of the grave. It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Harry watched it, and his scar seared with pain again . . . and he suddenly knew that he didn't want to see what was in those robes ... he didn't want that bundle opened..._

* * *

There was a moment of silence before everyone burst into question.

"What do you mean?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Did Potter cheat or something?"

"Is Harry okay?"

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore yelled through the sea of students, "Everyone please sit back down."

Everyone shuffled back to their seats not daring to defy the headmaster, but Ron and Hermione.

"Mr. Weasley, Miss. Hermione please sit down." They both shook their heads.

"If it involves Harry it involves us." Dumbledore thought for a moment before he gave a quick nod before turning back to the Hufflepuff.

"Cedric what happened?"

"Um, me and Harry we helped each other through the maze a lot so when we reached the cup we grabbed it at the same time to have a shared Hogwarts victory. We found out the cup was a pork key when we ended up in a graveyard. I-I don't think it was around here, or even close, because there was no mountains. We both were nervous so we pulled out our wands, then someone came out. Harry… he-he screamed out in pain all of sudden clamping his head. He told me to go back to the port key and leave. I-I didn't want to leave him but he said it was the only way we would survive. So I ran towards the cup and the person shot a killing curse at me. And yeah that's it... do-do you think we can help Harry?" He said everything in a hurried whisper.

Dumbledore's eyes slowly lost their twinkle when Cedric said his story.

"I think we need to move fast if we are going too."

* * *

 _He could hear noises at his feet. He looked down and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where he was tied. Wormtail's fast, wheezy breathing was growing louder again. It sounded as though he was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then he came back within Harry's range of vision, and Harry saw him pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water - Harry could hear it slopping around - and it was larger than any cauldron Harry had ever used; a great stone belly large enough for a full-grown man to sit in._  
 _The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. Now Wormtail was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling names beneath it. The large snake slithered away into the darkness._  
 _The liquid in the cauldron seemed to heat very fast. The surface began not only to bubble, but to send out fiery sparks, as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Wormtail tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated. And Harry heard the high, cold voice again._  
 _"Hurry!"_  
 _The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It might have been encrusted with diamonds._  
 _"It is ready. Master."_  
 _"Now ..." said the cold voice._  
 _Wormtail pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside them, and Harry let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of material blocking his mouth._  
 _It was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind - but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face - no child alive ever had a face like that - flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes._  
 _The thing seemed almost helpless; it raised its thin arms, put them around Wormtail's neck, and Wormtail lifted it. As he did so, his hood fell back, and Harry saw the look of revulsion on Wormtail's weak, pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron. For one moment, Harry saw the evil, flat face illuminated in the sparks dancing on the surface of the potion. And then Wormtail lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Harry heard its frail body hit the bottom with a soft thud._  
 _Let it drown, Harry thought, his scar burning almost past endurance, please. . . let it drown. . . ._

* * *

"Dumbledore what are we going to do?" McGonagall asked frightened.

"I'm not sure Minerva, I fear the longer we wait the stronger the possibility something terrible will happen to Harry."

"What about Diggory?"

"I fear he must be the one to go back. I have seen the type of portkey. Only the people who have used it may use it again."

"But Dumbledore isn't there another way?"

"I'm afraid not Minerva. Now excuse me I must go break the news too poor Cedric."

When Dumbledore walked away McGonagall heard his muttering to himself, "Now, who interfered with the portkey's magic and course is the question."

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 **I am soooo sorry for not updating sooner. I have wanted to write this story for months but now that I actually am I'm realizing how hard the concept is. I hope this is okay for now, I'm not too happy with it but you guys people deserve a update. Please review and let me know how you feel. I will try to update sooner than two months. Also I am warning you this is probably only going to be four or five chapters. Anyways sorry once again for the super late update.**

 _ **XOXO~Beth2000**_


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